smith



(No Model.)

B. G. SMITH.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1.4

MEANS FOR PROPELLING CARS UPON RAILWAYS.

Patented June 21885 (No Model.) .2 Sheets-Sheet 2 E. G. SMITH. MEANS FOR PROPELLING CARS UPON RAILWAYS. No. 319.835.

Patented June 2,- 1885.

Wirzaraem mww Nv PErERs, Pnam-Li'mo m han Washington, D. C,

rrn firarns n'rnn'r @rrrcn.

EDWVARD G. SMITH, OF NEW' YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO LUDOLPH A. FULLGRAFF, OF SAME PLACE.

MEANS FDR PROPELMNG CARS UPON RAiLVi/AYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 319,333, dated June 2, 1885.

Application filed April 7, 1884. (No model.)

To ctZZ Hill/0772, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD G. SMITH, of the city and county of New York, in the State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Means of Propelling Cars on of said tube or conduit and system of buckets,

whereby they so adapt themselves to each other as to avoid any considerable escape of air from between them.

It also consists in novel means whereby the car or vehicle in its passage over the track is made to control the issue of compressed air from the said tube or conduit to act upon the said system of buckets or abutments.

The invention also consists in certain details, hereinafter described. 7

Figure 1 in the drawings exhibits a side view of a railway-car and a longitudinal section of the compressedair tube and its appurtenances, and of the buckets and means of closing the outlet-valves of the said tube. Fig. 2 exhibits an end view of the car and a transverse section of the compressedair tube and of the valveopening mechanism attached to the car. Fig. 3 is a plan of the air-tube and of part of the car attachment for operating in combination therewith. Fig. 4. is a side view, and Fig. 5 a

top view, of part of a jointed rod for operating the valves.

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of part of the air-tube and one of its spouts and valves and of some of the buckets attached to the car.

A B G designate the air-tube, which is arranged in the track between and partly below the railsr r. This tube is represented as made of cast-iron and composed of three portionsviz., lower and upper flanged portions, Aand B, which may be of any convenient transverse fully described.

sectional form, and a horizontal partition, 0, which is placed between the said flanged portions and secured by the bolting together of the flanges of those portions. The space abclow the partition 0 forms the continuous conduit for compressed air, which is supplied to the said conduit at either end for the purpose of propelling the cars. The partition Chas cast with it the outlet-spouts Z) b forthe issue of the compressed air from the conduit a. These spouts have an upward inclination toward the direction in which the cars are to be propelled, as shown in Fig. 1, wherein an arrowis represented to indicate such direction. The upper portion, 13, of the tube is a mere shield to the spouts b b, the mouths of which terminate in openings in the top of said shield,which forms a continuous surface, fitting to the edges and mouths of the buckets D H I D H I,which are attached to the cars to receive the impact of the compressed air issuing from the said spouts, and which will be hereinafter more The tube A B 0 should be sustained in a fixed relation to the track, and for this purpose both may be supported, as shown in Fig. 2, upon iron cross-ties,inwhich there is a seat, into which the said tube fits. Each spout b is fitted with a hinged valve, 0, to which is applied a spring, a, by which it is closed, as shown in Fig. 1, and for the opening of which a lever, d, is applied on a fixed fulcrum, 6, under the spout. One end of this lever acts against a pin, f, passing through a hole in the under side of the spout, to open the valve, and the other end is connected by a link, 9, passing through a hole in the shield B, with a jointed sectional bar, E, which extends the whole length of the track, where it is supported-by the several links 9 9, being arranged within a longitudinal recess, h, provided along the top of the shield B, as shown in Fig. l. The adjacent ends of sections of this bar E are fitted together with loose mortise-and-tenon joints, as shown at t j in Figs.

4 and 5, and the connection at each joint is 9 cated in dotted outline in Fig. 4, and the elontoo gation of the bar consequent on such fiexure. The links 9 are connected with the said bar E close to the joints, the sections of the bar being severally of a length equal to the distances between the said links and between the centers of the mouths of the spouts. The buckets may be attached to the bottom of the car in any convenient or suitable manner; but, as it is preferable that they should not require any addition to the height of the car, I have represented the running-gear of the car as eonsisting of narrow side trucks, F, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, which do not extend across the track, but each of which contains wheels G G for one side of the car only, the said wheels each having a short independent axle, m, of its own, which has both its boxes in its own side truck, and does not extend across the track. With the runninggear thus constructed the buckets are permitted to be arranged between the wheels and to fit close to the mouths of the spouts and to the crown of the shield 13, the loweredges of the buckets being shaped to conform to the said crown, which is thus made to prevent the escape of air at the said edges.

I have represented the buckets as constructed upon or with ahorizontal board, H, placed at a short distance below the bottom of the car-body. This board may be suspended from the floor-frame of the car, or may be supported, as shown in Fig. 2, directly upon the trucks and have the car-bodysupported upon it. The car-springs may in the latter case be between the said board and the car-body, or in either case may be applied in the trucks on the axleboxes in the usual way.

The series of buckets consists of the hori zontal board H, two upright boards, I I, attached to said board H, and a series of abutments, D D, placed across the board H between the two boards I I.

Each bucket consists of an abutment, D, a portion of the board H, and portions of the two side boards, II, which latter are shown in Fig. 2 as lapping the sides of the shield 13. These side boards are shown in Fig. 3, where the board H is omitted from that part of the bucket structure which is represented. The several buckets will not be air-tight, because the boards I I will not fit tightly against the sides of the shield B, nor will the lower edges of the abutments D fit tightly the top of the shield 13. .Airmay also escape from the buckets through the longitudinal recess h in the top of the shield. The buckets will therefore have ample vent, and pressure will be prevented from accumulating in them, the air acting only by its impact on or in the buckets to move the car.

I may here remark that I do not confine myself to any method of attaching the buckets to the car or to any arrangement of running-gear. In everybucketthereissuspendcd from the board H, or from any fixed part of the bucket structure, by a pivot, S, an inclined hanger, J, to the lower end of which is pivoted a roller, q, which is capable of pressing on the jointed sectional rod E, and all of these hangers are connected with "a rod, K, which runs the whole length of the car through holes in the buckets D D, and which is so prevented from moving upward and downward, but permitted to be moved longitudinally by means of an upright shaft, L, situated on the platform of the car, and which has on its upper part a hand-wheel, t, and on its lower part a pinion, a, which gears with a rack, 22, on the said red, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. By moving the rod K longitudinally in one direction or the other the hangers J J may be raised and lowered, so that their rollers may press on the jointed sectional bar E in such manner as to produce the downward fiexure of its joints, as shown in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, and so produce through the links gthe opening of the valves 00 in the air-spouts b, or that the rollers may be so raised as to stand just above the bar E without depressing it, and allow the valves 0 c to be kept closed by their springs. The connection of the rod K with the hangers may be made in various ways, but is shown as made by simple slots in the rod, through which the hangers pass, and in which they fit so as to have only just sufficient freedom of motion to permit their necessary movement. When the shaft L is turned to a position to cause the rod K to hold up the hangers J high enough to allow the sectional bar E to rise to a straight position and allow the valves 0 c to be closed by their several springs, as shown in Fig. 1, the apparatus is inoperative; but

on theshaft L being turned to a proper position the rod so depresses the hangers J as to cause them to produce the downward fiexure of such of the joints of the said bar as they are over, as shown in Fig. 4 in dotted outline, and

as also shown in Fig. 6, and thereby to produce the opening of the several valves connected with the said bar near said j oints. The compressed air, being thus allowed to issue from the spouts or outlets b b of the air-tube,

IIO

enters the buckets, and by its impingement upon the'abutment at the front thereof produces the propulsion of the car, and as the car moves forward and the hangers advance along the sectional bar they continue to open the valves of the spouts under the car and permit the closing of those in the spouts which the car leaves, and the propulsion of the car is continued all along the line. To stop the car, the rodK is moved in a direction to raise the hangers and permit the closing of the valves, and brakes may be also applied in the usual or any suitable manner.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The air-tube composed of the lower portion 0, with the attached spouts b b, and the shield B, the whole combined substantially as herein described.

2. The combination,with an air-tube placed lengthwise of a railway-track, and having in -tion, A, containing the air-duet a, the partiit at intervals outlets furnished with valves, a railway-car having attached to it a series of buckets, a flexible sectional bar arranged lengthwise of the track and connected with said valves, and a device attached to the car for the purpose of producing the flexure of said bar for operating the said valves, substantially as herein described.

3. The combination, with the air-tube arranged in the track and furnished with airspouts, and the buckets attached to the car, of a shield flush with ends of the said spouts, and to the surface of which the edges of the said buckets conform, substantially as herein described.

4. The combination, with the air-tube proherein described.

, E. G. SMITH. WVitnesses:

FREDK. HAYNES, HENRY P. BROWN. 

